Barrels cut?
 

The book says 28 " They are 26 " cyl/imroved . In your expert opinion have they been cut or is the book wrong? Is the right barrel tighter than the left?

It looks to me that they are uncut. You have the solid line at the muzzle where the matting ends. The right barrel should be the more open choke.

To me it looks like the right is tighter. Which would be the opposite of normal.

Reversed choke arrangements are not unheard of, nor are they particularly common.
The picture would certainly say to me that they are uncut.

The barrels are definitely uncut.The line at the muzzle and the barrels touching at the muzzle show it has not been cut.As to the chokes,they could be from the factory that way. However,my guess is that the gun was originally IC and Mod and the mod barrel was opened to cylinder.Check the chokes with a dial indicator gauge not a plug gauge.That will tell you what your constrictions really are and how long the chokes are.

Well, I'm not entirely sure that they are original length. I don't see the keels at the end and the picture is not clear enough to tell if the line on the rib is original. I have seen the matting on cut barrels polished down and a new line lnscribed. Two inches cut from a 28" modified & imp.cyl barrel could leave it imp.cyl and cyl.
From the pictures provided, and I'm on the fence on this one.

John Allen gave you a good explanation. Get a letter.

The rib appears to be uncut. The top of the rib is not polished down and you can see where each matting line terminated as the matting machine was lifted.

As for the barrels being cut or uncut... who knows...?
Get a bore micrometer and measure the bore diameter and the constriction in thousandths of an inch.

If the serialization book says the barrels were originally 28" I would order a letter... I think the book has been wrong once or twice before.




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I owned 3 Parkers over the years that had no horizontal line scribed across the end of the ribs at all. The milling cuts ran right out to and through the face of the standing rib; extremely shallow at the ends but there. All 3 guns "lettered", had intact muzzle keels,& etc. One was a 28", the other 2 were 30" guns.

Not the best images, but the left barrel appears to have a dent (or had a dent removed) at 1:00 and remains slightly out-of-round.
At the time of your 3 day inspection measure the choke length of the reportedly IC barrel. The length of the choke constriction of a 16 or 20g should be 1 1/2" - 2" with a short parallel section at the muzzle; longer if a 12g.

From the late Austin Hogan
Parker chokes prior to sometime during Remington's ownership were cut with the adjustable nut borer and had the characteristic "OGEE" shape, with a parallel section 1/8 to 1/4 inch long. Late Remington barrels were reamed from the muzzle end, and have longer parallel sections.

The gun should be viewable at The Gun Shop in Olathe. Possibly a member could swing by with a bore gauge.